The International Geographical Union’s Commission on Biogeography and Biodiversity focuses on improving the understanding of the concept of ecosystem and its conservation. There are a variety of ecosystems such as those that occur in deserts, forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes, rivers, and agricultural landscapes. In each ecosystem, living creatures, including humans, form a community, interacting with one another and with the air, water, and soil around them. This can be applied to diversity at all levels of biological organization: diversity among individuals within a particular species (genetic diversity), the diversity of species in an ecosystem, and the diversity of ecosystems on Earth. At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, world leaders agreed on a comprehensive strategy for sustainable development -- meeting our needs while ensuring that we leave a healthy and viable world for future generations. One of the key agreements adopted at Rio was the Convention on Biological Diversity. This pact among the vast majority of the world’s governments sets out commitments for maintaining the world’s ecological underpinnings as we go about the business of economic development. The Commission will focus on three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.
International Geographical Union
Commission on Biogeography and Biodiversity
Develop a network of professional geographers and a system of information on biogeography and biodiversity.
Develop information on NGOs, International organizations, private firms, and public agencies using geography, working in partnership with other IGU Commissions and study groups interested in issues related to biogeography. Information gathered includes addresses and emails for key persons and descriptions of the geographic skills and perspectives demanded.
- Organize meetings with the goal of producing publications on what geography can offer to preserve biodiversity
- To promote and coordinate interdisciplinary research on biodiversity loss and desertification in our changing global environment;
- To study the effects of environmental and social change arising from natural and human processes and their implications for biodiversity loss.
The broad research objectives of the commission are as follow.
- Recent Development and Expansions of Biogeography
- Challenges of Biodiversity Conservation in the Changing world
- Mountain Ecosystem Responses to Climate and Land Use Change
